Five of the early missionaries and three of later date are buried in the crypt, under the floor of the sanctuary, in front of the high altar; and Bishop Diego rests under the floor at the right-hand side of the altar.
The small cemetery, which is walled in and entered from the church, is said to contain the bodies of 4000 Indians, as well as a number of whites. In the northeast corner is the vault in which are buried the members of the Franciscan community.
In the bell tower are two old bells made in 1818, as is evidenced by their inscriptions, which read alike, as follows: "Manvel Vargas me fecit ano d. 1818 Mision de Santa Barbara De la nveba California"--"Manuel Vargas made me Anno Domini 1818. Mission of Santa Barbara of New California." The first bell is fastened to its beam with rawhide thongs; the second, with a framework of iron. Higher up is a modern bell which is rung (the old ones being tolled only).
The Mission buildings surround the garden, into which no woman, save a reigning queen or the wife of the President of the United States, is allowed to enter. An exception was made in the case of the Princess Louise when her husband was the Governor-general of Canada. The wife of President Harrison also has entered. The garden, with its fine Italian cypress, planted by Bishop Diego about 1842, and its hundred varieties of semi-tropical flowers, in the center of which is a fountain where goldfish play, affords a delightful place of study, quiet, and meditation for the Franciscans.
It is well that the visitor should know that this old Mission, never so abandoned and abused as the others, has been kept up in late years entirely by the funds given to the Franciscan missionaries, who are now its custodians, and it has no other income.
The Mission Library contains a large number of valuable old books gathered from the other Missions at the time of secularization. There are also kept here a large number of the old records from which Bancroft gained much of his Mission intelligence, and which, recently, have been carefully restudied by Father Zephyrin, the California historian of the Franciscan Order. Father Zephyrin is a devoted student, and many results of his zeal and kindness are placed before my readers in this volume, owing to his generosity. His completed history of the Missions and Missionaries of California is a monumental work.